I Love You, Arthur Dayne
by wholocker78218
Summary: Jamie and Arthur have a fight. Modern AU.


"You lied to me, again!" Arthur shouted, Jaime winced at the sound.

Arthur didn't shout often, at all really, but when he did he was pissed. Really fucking pissed. It wasn't a common occurrence for them to fight, their relationship had always been built on mutual respect. From friends to lovers to husbands to dads. They had spent the last ten years together with only the occasional fight, they bickered often but never like this, never shouting and screaming at the other.

"She's my sister, what do you want me to do? Ignore her? If I asked you to ignore your siblings what would you do then? Huh? You'd refuse. How is me seeing my sister any different to you seeing yours?" Jaime shouted back, anger coursing through him.

"I haven't slept with my sisters," Arthur shouts back, then freezes.

Jaime steps backwards as Arthur tries to move towards him. His veins full of ice rather than blood, every part of him cold. Without saying anything else he turns away from Arthur, walks over to the bathroom and slams the door shut, bolting it. Dimly he hears Arthur apologising through the door, Jaime ignores him as he slides down the door to sit on the cold tiles. He doesn't know how long he sits there on the floor, he heard the front door slam shut but he can't remember if that happened hours or seconds ago. He's numb - of all the things Arthur could shout and scream at him, he never thought it would come to that. The mistakes he made so long ago that even now he cannot escape, he's forever being reminded by that one night.

Looking at his watch, he notes that Johanna needs to be ready to leave for school in an hour. Pushing himself off the floor he unbolts the door, not knowing whether he wants Arthur to be there waiting for him or to not be there at all. Opening the door reveals the empty apartment, the dinner dishes still sitting by the sink, the vase that was knocked off the table when Arthur jumped up in anger.

Jaime ignores all this and heads across the hall to wake his daughter and bring her to the kitchen to get some breakfast and then ready for school.

"Where's daddy?" The golden little girl asks, Jaime's chest tightens.

"Daddy had to pop out early this morning, so papa's taking you to school today," Jaime responds, bending down to look his daughter in the eye.

"Yay," she cheers, wrapping his arms around his neck, his own wrapping around her tiny body tightly as he lifts her up onto his hip. "You play better music in the car," she whispers. "Don't tell daddy," she adds, making a small smile appear on Jaime's face.

"Course not, princess. Now, what shall we have for breakfast?"

"Waffles," she says excitedly and Jaime doesn't know why he even asked, waffles are her favourite.

—-

When Jaime arrives back home after taking Johanna to school, he expects to see Arthur sitting on the doorstep, but he isn't. This is new, they haven't gone this long without at least contacting the other, Jaime reaches in his pocket for his phone, maybe he missed his call or text. His phone isn't there, though. He must have left it in the house.

He finds his phone on the couch next to the TV remote. The battery, naturally, is dead. Jaime plugs it in to charge, waiting for the screen to light up feels like it takes forever, eventually he hears the tell-tale double vibration of the phone turning back on. Before he can reach for it however, there is a knock on the door, Arthur must have forgotten to take his keys when he left.

"Come to apolog-" he begins as he opens the front door only to stop at the sight of two police officers on his doorstep.

"Jaime Dayne?" The female officer asks and Jaime nods his head dumbly. "I'm Sergeant Alice Campbell and this is my partner Sergeant Liam Dillane, may we come inside?" She says gesturing to herself and her partner.

Jaime, once again, nods dumbly and stands aside to let the officers in before closing the door behind them and leading them into the living room.

"What's this about, why are you here?" Jaime asks.

"I'm afraid, we have some bad news, Mr Dayne. At 1:38am this morning, your husband Arthur Dayne was taken to hospital following a major car crash. Unfortunately, he died upon arrival and they were unable to revive him. I'm very sorry, but your husband is dead." She says, false empathy dripped over rehearsed words.

—-

"Mind if I join you?" A deep soothing voice spoke, Jaime Lannister looks up from his book and catches eyes with the most handsome man he has ever seen. Dark hair, violet eyes and skin as golden as the sun.

"Sure," he responds, trying and failing to keep his voice level. The man just smiles in response. "Jaime Lannister, and you are?" He asks the handsome stranger.

"Arthur Dayne, apologies for disrupting you, " he gestures to the book in Jaime's hands. "But it was either sit here or stand at a high table surrounded by teenagers taking photos of their names written on cups. And there's only so much I can take before I do something regretful with their phones." Arthur jokes and it makes Jaime smile.

"There's no need to apologise, I completely understand," he says back with a teasing smile that makes Arthur's lips twitch with amusement. "And I'm not really a reader, but sitting here alone with a normal overly expensive coffee doesn't looks half as pathetic if people see you with a book."

At that Arthur laughs properly, "Why didn't I think of that?" He says, his smile warm and his presence feeling entirely natural to Jaime.

—-

Cersei practically moves in with him during the run up to the funeral. He can't stand the sight of her. He knows it's unfair to blame her, it's not like she was driving the car that crashed into the side of Arthur's and sent him spiralling off the road into a ditch.

But every time he looks at her he remembers the fight. If she hadn't left a message on the answering machine thanking Jaime for taking her to her doctor's appointment after he told Arthur he was at work all day. If she hadn't kept insisting on Jaime being the one to take her virginity, to finally be whole together, like they always should be. If none of that had happened, he and Arthur wouldn't have fought, he would never have gone for a drive at that time of night, he'd be here, in Jaime's arms, with their daughter, watching a Disney movie they had watched a thousand times.

The sight of her disgusts him but it's not her fault, it's his own. He knew she was controlling, and he danced to her song. He did everything to keep her happy even at the cost of his own relationship. Even when he escaped with Arthur, a man he loved more than anything, he still let her sink her claws into his skin and pull him back to her - only the slightest bit but it was enough to bring his whole world crumbling around him.

Arthur was his stars in the sky, his sun at dawn and dusk, his one true love. He screwed it up and lost him forever. Lost Johanna's dad forever. If he'd only been stronger, if he'd only said no - none of this would have happened.

—-

Will you, Jaime Lannister, marry me?" Arthur said, down on his knee, looking brightly up at his lover.

"Of course, I'll marry you, I mean who else will take that burden?" He teased, tears of joys in his eyes.

Arthur stands, his eyes brighter than stars, his smile blinding. He pushes the ring on Jaime's finger and pushes him backwards towards their bedroom, all the while whispering in Jaime's ear about all the ways he was going to help relieve the burden.

—-

"Will daddy ever come home?" Johanna asks and Jaime only just manages to hold back a sob as they stand in front of the newly filled in grave, but the tears in his eyes begin to build once again.

He kneels down on the ground, much like Arthur did to him on the day they got engaged, the thought of that day courses grief so strong through Jaime's system he almost loses all semblance of control over his emotions. He takes Johanna's small hands in his own and makes her look at him, she's still to young to understand the finality of death. He never though she'd have to face it so early in her short little life.

"I'm afraid not, princess. You see, daddy has moved on to another place, a better place. And as much as he would have loved to stay here with us, it's just not possible anymore. However, I want you to know that he loves you very much and he will watch you grow up into an amazing women and be proud of everything you achieve, as will I. You will make him proud and he will never, ever stop loving you. And one day, a long time from now, we'll see him again. But until then we must not forget how much he loves us and be sure to tell him how much we missed him when we are together again. Ok?" Jaime says, his tears now streaming down his face.

"Ok papa," she says, her arms wrapping around his neck tighter than ever. He lifts her into his arms, hugging her tight. "Papa?"

"Yes, princess?"

"You're not going to leave as well, are you?" She asks, the sound of fear in her voice something Jaime never wanted to hear and the tears fall faster than he can wipe them away.

"No princess, I'm not going anywhere."

Out of the corner of his eye, he see's Ashara walking towards him, silently asking if he would like some time alone with the grave, he nods his head. She takes Johanna from his arms, the little girl asking her if she knew what sort of place papa was now in.

Jaime turned back to the grave, his mind racing through the events leading from the first angry shout to the knock on his door, he doesn't know when he closed his eyes but they snap open at the memory of the police interrupting him before he could grab his phone. He's kept it fully charged but hasn't used it since that night, Ashara and Tyrion had just shown up in his living room sometime after the police had left. Ashara had been visited by the police as well and she had called Tyrion, the only member of Jaime's family he could bare the sight of even in his darkest moments. They made all the arrangements and got him ready for this day because the gods knew he couldn't have donut himself.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he see's one missed call from 'Husband'. He had changed the caller ID after their wedding, the sight of it having made him smile every time. Unlocking the phone he see's the voicemail box with a red '1' in the corner, he taps the screen then lifts the phone to his ear.

"Jaime, please call me back. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. I should never have said that, any of it. I love you more than anything. Please don't shut me out, I'm on my way home, ok? I'll see you soon. I love you."

He's back on his knees in the dirt, finally letting the damn of grief break and he sobs harder than he ever has in his life. There's arms wrapping around him, a beard scratching against his cheek and the sound of his brothers voice telling him to let it out. And he does, he lets every tear he's been holding back fall. His arms wrap around Tyrion and hold him closer than must be comfortable but Tyrion doesn't complain, he continues to mumble soothing words while stroking the back of Jaime's head, exactly the way mother used to do to him before she died, must be instinct.

"He tried to call me and I didn't pick up, his last words were left in a voicemail because I didn't pick up the damn phone. He loved me and I couldn't even answer the fucking phone." He cries.

"You weren't to know, there was nothing you could have done. It was an accident, no one could have known what would happen on that road. He loved you and Johanna more than anything in this world and you did not fail him by missing his call." His brother replied softly.

Once the crying stopped, he released his little brother, kissed him on the forehead on walked into the church, the pews now empty so he took a seat and pulled out his phone and repeated the voicemail.

"Jaime, please call me back. I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. I should never have said that, any of it. I love you more than anything. Please don't shut me out, I'm on my way home, ok? I'll see you soon. I love you."

"I love you, too." There's no one around to hear him but he knows, deep inside that Arthur heard him. "I love you, Arthur Dayne."


End file.
